Richard Hewitt is an applied researcher in land use science and environmental sustainability. He has a strong interest in participatory planning and the role of communities in land and resources governance. For his PhD thesis (University of Alcalá , 2014) he focussed on participatory land-use modelling in a natural protected area in southern Spain. Before coming to the James Hutton Institute, he led a team of researchers investigating the implementation of renewable energy in Spain under the EU FP7 project “Knowledge-based climate mitigation for a low-carbon economy” (COMPLEX).
His current research lies in two principal directions; 1) the Clean Energy Transition, particularly the role of different actors in putting the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement into practice; 2) managing environmental change through participatory mapping and modelling approaches.
His work is largely integrative and collaborative in nature, and he welcomes collaboration in any of his key areas of interest. He is also keen to host visiting researchers and to undertake student supervision.
Hewitt, R. J., & Macleod, C. J. K. (2017). What Do Users Really Need? Participatory Development of Decision Support Tools for Environmental Management Based on Outcomes. Environments, 4(4), 88.
Hewitt, R.J., Hernandez-Jimenez, V., Zazo-Moratalla, A, Ocón-Martín, B., Román-Bermejo, L., Encinas-Escribano, M. (2017). Participatory Modelling for Resilient Futures: Action for Managing Our Environment from the Bottom-Up. Developments in Environmental Modelling, Volume 30, 1st Edition. Elsevier.
Hewitt, R. J., Winder, N. P., Jiménez, V. H., Alonso, P. M., & Bermejo, L. R. (2017). Innovation, pathways and barriers in Spain and beyond: an integrative research approach to the clean energy transition in Europe. Energy Research & Social Science, 34, 260-271.
Alonso, P. M., Hewitt, R., Pacheco, J. D., Bermejo, L. R., Jiménez, V. H., Guillén, J. V., ... & de Boer, C. (2016). Losing the roadmap: Renewable energy paralysis in Spain and its implications for the EU low carbon economy. Renewable energy, 89, 680-694.
Hasselmann, K., Cremades, R., Filatova, T., Hewitt, R., Jaeger, C., Kovalevsky, D., ... & Winder, N. (2015). Free-riders to forerunners. Nature Geoscience, 8(12), 895.
Links:
[1] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4169-8647